Seven people have been killed and one critically injured in another suspected mass shooting in California, just days after 11 people were killed at a Lunar New Year event in Los Angeles.
It marks the 38th mass shooting in America this year. It’s January 24.
According to reports, seven victims were fatally shot at a farm and another business in California’s Half Moon Bay on Monday local time (Tuesday AEDT) — and a suspect described as a “disgruntled worker” later turned himself in to authorities.
The victims were killed in the shootings at Mountain Mushroom Farm and Rice Trucking-Soil Farm, a landscaping supply company, in the small city along the Golden State’s coast about 50km south of San Francisco, NBC Bay Area reported.
NBC Bay Area cited a Half Moon Bay city councilwoman saying the victims are Chinese farmworkers.
It wasn’t immediately clear if both shootings were connected.
San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa told Fox San Francisco the victims were found in two separate crime scenes.
“It looks like we have multiple casualties in two locations,” Mr Canepa said.
A suspect was taken into custody, the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office said in a tweet at around 4.50pm local time.
The sheriff’s office also stressed there is no longer a threat to the community.
The suspect has been identified as 67-year-old Zhao Chunli, according to reports.
He drove himself to a sheriff’s substation and surrendered to law enforcement, CBS Bay Area reported, citing sources.
A man wearing a white baseball cap was seen being led away in handcuffs, the television station reported.
ABC7 aired footage of the arrest of an Asian man, saying it happened as their crew was setting up outside a police station.
Carlos Martinez-Maya spoke to the network outside the mushroom farm, where he was waiting for news of his uncle, who works there.
“My mum gets a call from my dad,” he said.
“He’s like crying a little bit saying like, my brother’s in there … so we’re just worried right now because he’s not answering his calls or anything. They’re not letting anyone go in or out.”
San Mateo County Board of Supervisors President Dave Pine said four people were gunned down at the farm and the other three were killed at the trucking business on the outskirts of the city.
It’s not clear how the two locations are tied to each other, but Mr Pine said the suspect worked for one of the businesses. He also called the suspect a “disgruntled worker.”
California State Senator Josh Becker said his thoughts are with the all those affected.
“Gun violence has come to our district today and I will do whatever I can to support the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department and Half Moon Bay city officials during this tragic event. We will continue to monitor this situation,” Mr Becker said in a tweet.
“My thoughts go out to all affected.”
On Saturday night, 72-year-old Huu Can Tran killed at least 11 people and injured 10 more at a dance club in the Los Angeles suburb of Monterey Park.
Tran died by suicide inside a van some time before 1pm on Sunday after a more than hour-long stand-off with police.
Police had located the van seemingly linked to the suspected shooter earlier in the day in Torrance, California, with armoured tanks and a bomb squad descending on the scene.
The mass murder was the deadliest in the US since the massacre at a Uvalde, Texas elementary school that killed 21 people last May, and was the fifth such horrifying incident in the country thus far in 2023.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has been in Monterey Park where that massacre took place, took to Twitter moments after news broke of the new killings.
“At the hospital meeting with victims of a mass shooting when I get pulled away to be briefed about another shooting. This time in Half Moon Bay. Tragedy upon tragedy.”
White House press spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden had been briefed on the incident.
“He has asked federal law enforcement to provide any necessary assistance to the local authorities. As more details become available, the President will be updated.”
— with AFP, NY Post and Fox News
